picillo farm

PERRY HILL RD

The Picillo Farm site is a small portion of a former 100-acre pig farm located in Coventry, RI. More than 10,000 drums of hazardous waste and an undetermined bulk volume of liquid chemicals were disposed of into several unlined trenches on an 8-acre area of the farm. The site was discovered in 1977, when a fire and explosion occurred. After requiring the property owners to halt the illegal disposal operations, the State of Rhode Island conducted an emergency removal of drums containing sodium aluminum hydride. From 1980 through 1982, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) and the EPA excavated the trenches and removed the majority of the wastes. The contaminated soil was stored on-site in three piles until it was moved off-site in 1988. Currently, there are more than 150 single-family homes located within a mile of the site, and a new development continues to encroach on undeveloped land surrounding the site. All residences rely on private wells for their water; these wells are sampled approximately once a year by the Rhode Island Department of Health. The site lies near the upper Roaring Brook watershed, which is a tributary to the Moosup River. Groundwater and surface water run-off flows away from the disposal site towards an unnamed swamp, Great Cedar Swamp, and Whitford Pond (which is used to irrigate a nearby cranberry bog).

• Organic Chemicals, Inc. (Grandville, MI)
• Hercules 009 Landfill (Brunswick, GA)
• United States Avenue Burn (Gibbsboro, NJ)
• Eielson Air Force Base (Fairbanks, AK)
• Michigan Disposal Service (cork Street Landfill) (Kalamazoo, MI)

• N.w. Mauthe Co., Inc. (Appleton, WI)
• Sherwin-williams/hilliards Creek (Gibbsboro, NJ)
• Pine Street Canal (Burlington, VT)
• Moss-american Co., Inc. (kerr-mcgee Oil Co.) (Milwaukee, WI)